Hawks third in home volleyball tourney

The Shawano Community High School volleyball team finished third at its invitational Saturday, losing to Oconto Falls in the championship bracket’s semifinal match but rebounding to beat Clintonville in the third-place match. Rhinelander topped Oconto Falls in the championship match. Shawano (10-9, 1-0 Bay Conference) was undefeated heading into the semifinal game against Oconto Falls. The Hawks were even at 20-20 in the first game before Oconto Falls went on a 5-1 run to close out the set. Shawano played better in the second game, taking it 25-20. In the tiebreaker, the Hawks found themselves down 7-5, rallied for a 9-7 lead but went on to lose the game, 15-12, and the match. “I think we should have probably pulled it out,” Shawano coach Jean Wolff said. “Those are the types of games we need to learn how to win because winning is a mental thing. They’re learning that right now.” In the third-place match against Clintonville (6-13, 1-2 Eastern Valley), Shawano went ahead 16-9 on its way to a 25-18 victory. The second game was closer, eventually tying at 24-24. The Hawks won, 26-24. Shawano had beaten Clintonville (25-22, 25-18) in pool play earlier in the day. “It’s sometimes easy to let down when you play a team a second time,” Wolff said. “I was happy to see that my girls didn’t. That was nice.” Shawano also beat Oconto (25-22, 25-23) and Peshtigo (25-19, 25-22) in pool play. Junior Erika Dunnam led Shawano in the tourney with 38 kills, 14 blocks, 24 digs and six aces. Junior setter Annelies Young had 77 assists. Senior Courtney Vomastic had 24 kills and 29 digs. Clintonville took second in its pool, beating Oconto (17-25, 25-21, 15-13) and Peshtigo (25-21, 25-21). In the semifinal, the Truckers faced Rhinelander, taking the eventual champions to three games (21-25, 25-18, 8-15). “I’m very happy with the way we played today,” Clintonville coach Lance Bagstad said. “We came out today and hustled hard. We’ve been kind of on a roller-coaster, up and down with our energy. We came out well and played hard today.”